It's not what you do, but how much love you put into it that matters.
~Mother Teresa

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

People ask me quite frequently why I have so many children. The question surprises me every time. I have never been able to put a one sentence answer to the question...until now. Until Meatball.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day in bed, miserably ill with mastits. Miserably. 103.8 degree fever. deliriously painful breast. I was in bad shape. Luckily, the antibiotics and megadoses of ibuprophin kicked in fairly quickly and by this morning I was able to get up. I had to. Dearie had important meetings he had to go to and couldn't afford to miss another day of work.

We all made our beds, I got the kids' clothes out and asked them to get dressed so we could start school. I showered, giving Ladybug a steam bath because we have a cold going around the family, got dressed, and was beginning to dry my hair. That's when it happened.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this figure go bouncing by the bathroom door. I looked up in time to see it go bouncing back the other way. It was Meatball, putting on his shirt in a manner that most vaudevillians would be jealous of. As he bounced back and forth outside my bathroom in various stages of dress, his shirt on upside down and then finally right side up, hopping on one leg as he puts on his pants only to have to hop on two legs because he gets both feet into one pantleg (this is very sophisticated comedy for a four year old!) The most joy filled laughter swells up from my belly. I am laughing so hard, and I am so in love that I am overwhelmed. I begin crying with happiness and laughter. And then it strikes me. God has just passed before me and I had seen His face. And I was frozen. Frozen in that moment of complete joy. But, I was also in overwhelming awe. I seriously bent down and took off my shoes. (ok my pink fuzzy slippers Jellybean gave me for my birthday.) My bathroom floor had become sacred ground.

So that is why I have so many children. God shows His face to me through the faces of my children.